This invention relates to ski boots and ski bindings, and in particular to a unique ski boot and an operative combination of a ski boot and a binding. The invention permits both uncoupling of the boot from the binding upon release of the rear cuff of the ski boot, and also uncoupling if the skier is facing injury, but the rear cuff has not released.
This invention is an improvement over the applicants' ski boot and ski boot-binding described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,880,251, 5,020,822 and 5,026,087, the disclosures of all of which are incorporated herein by reference. While the inventions disclosed in such patents are vast improvements over conventional ski boots and boot-binding combinations, the present invention provides even greater safety and comfort for a skier.
As the technology relating to skis and ski boots has advanced over the years, leg injuries, particularly ankle injuries, have been reduced dramatically. However, knee injuries have actually dramatically increased. The vast majority of all skiing combinations still comprise a ski boot and a binding mounted on the ski. Rarely is any portion of the binding actually incorporated in the ski boot. While the number of manufacturers of skis, boots and bindings has decreased over the years, and while more manufacturers are becoming involved in all three areas, skis, boots and bindings are still being manufactured as individually separate systems. Radical advances in skiing safety by permitting the integration of skis, boots and bindings, or at least the boots and bindings, have not occurred. While bindings have experienced minor advances over the years, the typical binding still clings to the decades old structure of a toe portion and a heel portion, which clamp respectively to the skier's boot toe and boot heel. Because the typical boot sole is quite long, clamping at these great lengths necessitates a rather long lever arm for release. If the release settings for the binding are even a bit too tight, the long lever arm can easily result in injury to the skier.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,732 describes a basic and welcomed improvement in ski bindings, where the lever arm of the binding is considerably reduced. The commercial form of the device of this patent resulted in a binding still separate from the boot, necessitating an additional plate and additional weight. While the concepts behind the invention of this patent considerably improve upon the conventional heel and toe bindings, it has not proven to be a perfect answer to the problems encountered with heel and toe bindings.
Most conventional ski boots of the clam shell type (having forward and rear cuffs) have only limited lean adjustment in the forward direction and none rearward when the ski boot is closed for skiing. In this type of ski boot, and in all other modern, stiff ski boots, ankle injuries have been largely eliminated, but the stiffness of the boot and the inability to bend rearwardly have created new knee problems, and in particular tears of the anterior cruciate ligaments. This type of injury can often end a skier's skiing career, or force the truly avid skier to wear a knee brace in order to be able to ski in the future.
The three incorporated patents provide many operative improvements for both a ski boot and also the combination of a ski boot and releasable ski binding. The present invention provides additional improvements in both the boot and the boot-binding combination, providing an integrated structure having reliable release characteristics, injury protection, and further protection against phantom foot injury, another knee injury occurring generally when the skier is crouched, allowing substantial compressive torque of the body about the knee.